For fig growers in the US, have you used organza bags on your figs successfully to help combat birds and other insects (regular wasps)?
Luckily using some covering here is an option because there are no native fig/wasp pairs in North America, so the figs developed by state schools and grown non-commercially are self-fertile and don’t require a paired fig wasp for development.
I have an LSU Gold (I picked this one in the hopes the birds would be slightly less interested in it with only a slight color change with ripening). It’s holding 17 figs at the moment. That might sound like a pittance, but it’s the first year this tree has produced more than a couple of figs amnd I want to keep as many as I can for myself.
Organza bags were very effective for protecting my figs from hornets and fruit flies last year, in the previous year my crop was completely decimated by these two pests.
My last LSU Gold fig. Big one. This is, for my tree in it’s sun starved setting, what it looks like color wise at ripe. Past this it starts getting blemishes on the outside and the taste goes off enough to spit out.
It’s the only fig tree I am growing and I am certain it isn’t by far one of the better tasting ones.
On the organza bad side of things though, no insect or bird damage on any of the 17 fruit my tree finished…so in my very small data set it either worked or it wasn’t going to be an issue anyway.
I’ve never seen a fig tree in that shape before. You must like heights? All the older fig trees I’ve seen in my part of the south are rather ball shaped if given full sun…or usually wider than tall.
@Shibumi … my CHF is in year 5 now (in ground). That pic was last fall.
Once leaves drop (normally early Dec)… i cut it back to stumps about 2 ft tall and protect those stumps over winter. The next spring i let each stump i saved send up 2 shoots… and i stake and pull those shoots to spread them out so they all get good sun.
If i just let it grow like it wanted… i am sure it would be more bunched up. The shape you see it in there is because i was helping it get more sun to each shoot.
It will be similar this year too.
The shoots many grow to 10, 11, 12 ft by late fall.
400+ figs harvested. Those figs and my rich tooie persimmons are by far my favorite fruits.
Flavor Kings for sure.
We live in a different world (certainly in a different part at least).
Sorry I wasn’t thinking straight that I didn’t think of a colder climate that you must live in.
It doesn’t get cold enough to damage fig trees here unless there is a late freeze and new growth has begun…then it just burns the new growth and goes on from there. Year old wood is unaffected.
You’re making me think though. I could grow mine the same way to manage size and shape by pruning to a low elevation each winter
@Shibumi … yes we had a low of 3F this past winter… colder than usual and the stumps that i protected… most of them refused to bud and shoot this year. A couple of them did finally send out shoots… but most of my shoots this year came back up from the roots.
So it is a little later this year… but has shoots in the 6-7 ft range now… and is loading up with little figlets. Cant wait for those to ripen… my whole family loves them.
Organza bags work well with insects. However you will need to get a big enough bag to make sure that the fig doesn’t touch the side of the bag or the bees will be able to get to the fruit and ruin it.
I use 4x6 for standard to small figs and 5x7" for bigger figs like YLN.
